- Social:
Keep Food Legal
Executive Director of Keep Food Legal, a nonprofit that advocates for decreased regulation; lawyer and a columnist for the libertarian publication, Reason magazine
PROFILE
Baylen Linnekin
Guest
FROM Baylen Linnekin
To the Point
The Bitter Battle over Added Sugar in Your Food Obesity is a major health problem in the United States, and sugar is one of the causes. Even foods that already contain natural sugar have more sugar added as they're prepared for the market. Food labels already tell you the total amount of sugar. Now the FDA wants to break that down , so you know how much has been added. That's led to a lobbying frenzy, with 287,889 public comments. If Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola, Kellogg cereals, the Dairy Industry and two state governors are against you, you must be doing something right. That's what the food-and-nutrition police say about industry opposition to the FDA proposal. One health-advocacy group analyzed 80,000 food products, found 58% contained more sugar than they have naturally and insists that consumers ought to know. We hear about the lobbying frenzy over an idea first introduced by Michelle Obama.
To the Point
Can Government Control Obesity? The agriculture industry has made food so cheap and so plentiful that one third of Americans are obese and another third overweight. Twenty six million people have Type 2 Diabetes, with 79 million more on the way. With a major push from First Lady Michelle Obama, the federal school lunch program has been revised to limit the intake of calories, require whole grains and double the serving of fruits and vegetables. New York's Mayor Bloomberg has banned extra-large soft drinks . With predictions that half the country will be obese by 2030, it's all about controlling a spreading pandemic. But there's also a backlash. Students and teachers in Kansas went on YouTube singing, “ We are Hungry ." A Republican Congressman has introduced the No Hungry Kids Act . Is it necessary for government to police the diets of America's children? Will it work? Is the Nanny State just going too far?
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To the Point
Replacing Obamacare: Now you see it… now you don’t As the Senate deliberates replacing Obmacare, health coverage for millions of people is at stake. There've been no public hearings, and a draft measure won't be made public. Is the House version so unpopular that that Senate is hiding a version that looks much the same?
To the Point
The longest US war: Will Trump send more troops to Afghanistan? The Trump White House is divided over the Pentagon's request for more troops in Afghanistan—where the US has been fighting for the past 16 years. Is there a formula -- either for "victory" or a political settlement? Is there an end in sight for America's longest war?
To the Point
Trump's 'America First' goes missing abroad In the Middle East, President Trump is changing some policies of the Obama Administration—and reversing his own campaign attacks on Islam as a religion that "hates us." We hear about his visit to Saudi Arabia and what's at stake for the rest of his foreign excursion.
To the Point
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.